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8 Beverages to Add to Your 2026 Menu
From hop water and energy drinks to RTD cocktails and more, supercharge your 2026 menu with 8 must-try beverage formats!...
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In 2025, we deepened our commitment to brewing science, flavor chemistry, and practical innovation for beverage creators. From publishing original research on sulfur-related off-notes to releasing actionable formulation guides for emerging categories like hop water, our work this year focused on solving real-world brewing challenges with data-driven clarity.
With that in mind, we’d like to take a minute to flex on the industry leading research and innovations our team put together over the past year.
From key technical publications, educational resources, and community initiatives, we’ve remained committed to pushing the boundaries of botanical flavor science for beer and beverage creators. So, as 2025 draws to a close, let’s celebrate and reflect on a year that’s been defined by excellence in beverage science and community momentum.
One of our standout case studies this year was Defeating DMTS: How Quantum Extracts Prevent Flavor Defects. For full creative expression in brewing, formulators need to be able to identify the aroma compounds that matter, adjust them with precision, and leave out the ones that threaten a beer’s flavor integrity. One such compound, dimethyl trisulfide (DMTS), can impart undesirable “cabbage-like” aromas. Previously, this was a considerable challenge in cold-side brewing and hop extraction, but our research has made this a thing of the past.
We compared multiple extract types, including steam-distilled, CO₂ extracted, and Abstrax Quantum Series hop extracts, to show how our proprietary extraction methods deliver significantly lower DMTS levels and a cleaner, more hop-forward profile.
These kinds of actionable insights give brewers the ability to avoid stubborn off-notes in beer and hop-forward beverages before they ever impact the tank. This is tangible flavor control that elevates product quality and consistency.
As one of the fastest-growing non-alcoholic formats, we made it our mission to provide a comprehensive guide designed to help brewers quickly launch their own hop water. Rather than a simple overview, How to Make Hop Water serves as both a production playbook and flavor framework. We explain category trends, identify common pitfalls, and offer a foundational recipe brewers can adjust as needed and scale efficiently.
This low lift beverage format has the potential to be a major revenue driver for microbreweries and macrobreweries, so we created a resource that combines brewing parameters (pH, oxygen control, dosing, etc.) with insights into consumer demand. The result? Brewers can confidently explore hop water with consistency and control with verified workflows and the latest flavor solutions.
Obviously, we’re wildly proud of our technical publications, but brewing is a community endeavor. It doesn’t happen in a vacuum, and becoming part of regional, national, and even international brewing communities is necessary for us to develop the solutions that real brewers need. Plus, we had a lot of fun.
The Skunkworks Lounge competition once again brought together fearless brewers at the 2025 Craft Brewers Conference in Indianapolis. Brewers from all over the country competed for a place to showcase extraordinary beers that combined artistry with Abstrax flavor and aroma innovations.
From Cigar City Brewing’s Watermelon Rice Lager to Breakside Brewing’s DANK Dime Bag IPA, this year was unlike any other. Ultimately, Mountains Walking Brewery became our 3X reigning champion with a delicious, tropical twist on their legendary Sky Flowers series.
Beyond a truly delicious competition, the Skunkworks Lounge serves as a community-centric platform that reinforces our belief that innovation thrives where science meets collaboration.
In 2025, we made it a point to show up and actually hang out with the brewing community. So, we hit the road, hung out with old friends, made lots of new friends, and made appearances everywhere from New York and Georgia to Texas, Oregon, and more!
This is a small glimpse at all the awesome events we were able to attend in 2025. Through these interactions and the relationships that we build, we’re able to bring folks together and develop flavor solutions that solve real-world brewing problems. Speaking of flavor solutions…
At Abstrax, we provide solutions for a wide range of beverage formats and flavor preferences. That means constantly innovating to bring you, and your customers, flavors and aromas that are nostalgic and familiar, exotic and novel, or an unexpected mashup of the two!
For our BrewGas Series, this led to the launch of five new cannabis-inspired terpene-based flavor profiles crafted for brewers seeking bold, legally compliant aroma complexity. These new profiles give brewers an entirely new set of flavor tools to use in IPAs, seltzers, and specialty releases.
When it came to our high-intensity, fruit-forward Skyfarm Series, you asked for both classic citrus and next-gen citrus to create bold, zesty beverages with complex layers of sweet, sour, and tart.
Last, and definitely not least, we expanded our Quantum Series with three new hop-derived profiles. From classic noble hop flavors and aromas to flashy newcomers, you asked and we delivered. These varietal-specific solutions utilize our proprietary ultra-low temp extraction technology so you can brew with the finest, most aromatic hop extracts on the market.
We also renamed the entire Quantum Series to reflect the hop-specific varieties from which each profile is extracted. At the same time, we launched a profile-driven product name update in our Omni Hop Profiles. No updates on the products themselves and no changes to how they taste or perform, just a fresh coat of paint. For Quantum, this change was all about improving clarity, and for Omni this transition keeps everyone happy while still conveying which hop variety you’ll experience in each profile.
If 2025 taught us anything, it’s that research can directly inform what brewers do in-tank and on-tap. As demand for new formats and precision flavor control continue to grow, we’re headed into 2026 with a commitment to research that serves both scientific rigor and brewing creativity.
What does that mean? It means we’re performing more research, collaborating with new partners, and we’re bringing the Skunkworks Lounge back even bigger and better than ever. Let’s just say that 2026 is going to be a big year for flavor exploration and brewing possibilities. We’re talking new collections, more flavors, and new brewing solutions that address mouthfeel, functionality, and so much more!
At Abstrax, we provide novel solutions for beverage manufacturers of all sizes looking to streamline, innovate, and gain a competitive edge.
Contact us today and let’s get to work.
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